“Citizens are not happy with institutions. It is not only government institutions that citizens are unhappy with but also business institutions. The global financial crisis drew out citizens’ anger against financial institutions,” Planning Commission member Arun Maira has said.
Addressing CC Desai Memorial Lecture on ‘Reforming institutions: The key to inclusive, sustainable growth’ at the Administrative Staff College of India here on Thursday, Maira said, “The mismatch between the capability of our institutions and what citizens want has become rather wide. The millions who came out, led by Anna Hazare, against corruption in the country, with their demand to make new laws and create new institutions, and the millions more who took to the streets and to social media channels with their anger against the inability of institutions to provide safety to women, were demanding overdue reforms of the institutions of governance.”
The country needed institutional reforms urgently, he said and suggested that the country needed a plan to accelerate progress on all three tracks simultaneously - economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.
The Planning Commission member said that institutions of the state, business, democracy and justice had been developed by human beings over centuries to fulfil the needs of their societies. Institutions were the vehicles with which societies realised their aspirations, he noted.
“Conditions in which institutions operate have changed dramatically over the past two decades,” Arun said and added that the design of institutions must favour the new conditions.